One of the potential benefits to Amazon’s proposed purchase of Whole Foods is that the online giant might bring its expertise in data analytics and pricing: “Amazon’s wide-ranging data collection and sophisticated analysis helps it set prices and decide what offers to present to different customers” (from “ Amazon-Whole Foods tie-up could speed grocery transformatio n,” ABC News, June 19, 2017). Read this article and note the implications for Whole Foods pricing. What kind of pricing strategies could Amazon bring to the grocery market? In what other ways could Amazon leverage its online expertise at Whole Foods?

ClassPass is a startup that offers a monthly subscription service to fitness classes in more than 30 cities around the world. The company has struggled to find the “right price” for its services. ClassPass was offering a $100 per month subscription for unlimited fitness classes. This pricing, ClassPass attracted workout warriors – who got the best deal from this pricing, but their usage rate hurt ClassPass’s margins. In April 2016, ClassPass raised the price for its unlimited product to $180 – and not surprisingly lost customers. Learn more about ClassPass’s pricing issues by first reading this article at TechCrunch “ ClassPass sacrifices 10% of customers in pursuit of healthier margins, ” (September 27, [Continue Reading …]

A research study at the Universität Bonn (Germany) found that consumers are willing to pay more for products that include the Fair Trade logo (see image of logo on left). The logo can be found on a range of products including bananas, coffee, chocolate, and wine. TheUniversität Bonn study found consumers were willing to pay 30% more when the product carried the Fair Trade logo. In addition, they thought Fair Trade branded products tasted better. Another part of the study asked consumers to sample two pieces of chocolate and determine which tasted better. While the chocolates were identical, one included [Continue Reading …]